In douglas adams's novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, a computer program called Reason can retroactively justify any decision, providing an incontrovertible argument that whatever was decided was the right thing to do. The software proves so successful that the Pentagon buys it lock, stock and barrel, shortly before a dramatic increase in public approval of military spending. We're not quite there yet. Machines may have beaten us at remorselessly logical games like chess and Go, and they are increasingly giving us a run for our money at games of bluff and chance like poker. But no computer has ever come close to beating humans where it counts: in an argument.
展开▼
